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Saturday, March 23, 2019

Will he or won’t he?

So the Browns have assigned only 15 players with first-round
grades in next month’s college football draft. Because they had a much-better-than-expected record last
season, they were scheduled to draft 17th in the opening round.

But since they sent that selection to the New York Giants in
the Odell Beckham Jr. blockbuster deal, they now have to wait until midway
through the second round to dip into the college lottery.

Meaning, of course, that even if they had held on to that 17th
pick, they probably wouldn’t have used it because all of those 15 would
theoretically be gone. A convenient excuse to be only spectators on opening
night of the three-day extravaganza.

It’s also an interesting way of rationalizing shipping that
pick to the Giants. It’s like saying, “We had the 17th pick and awarded
first-round grades to only 15 prospects, so why not deal it because it would
have been second-round talent, anyway?”

Logic suggests there is no way the Browns will participate
in the opening round, watching instead as the top players fall, giving the
club’s fans, who are no doubt sick and tired of watching their cub drafting so high on an annual
basis, the night off.

Unless, that is, General Manager John Dorsey, whose star has
now risen to celestial heights, somehow finds a way to move up to grab one of
those 15 prospects who falls unexpectedly into his crosshairs.

It won’t take much. The rhythm of a draft is such that it can
be upset by just one major surprise in the top five. One shocker can create a
domino effect and knock everyone else down.

The only problem there is Dorsey, who loves to deal, does
not own enough trade capital with his personnel. After unloading Kevin Zeitler
and Jabrill Peppers to the Giants, he has little to work with beyond the
growing array of core players he won’t deal.

The only weapon he can wield is next year’s first-round pick.
The likelihood of that eventuating, however, ranks somewhere between “no way”
and “is he crazy?” Or does it?

Dorsey’s expected non-participation the first night is the
price he has paid to mold the Cleveland offense into one of the strongest and
scariest in the National Football League. In other words, it was well worth it.

No sense is pushing the envelope unless someone he has
totally fallen in love with tumbles and pushes him to search for a trade
partner. Considering his reputation as a risk taker, though, it wouldn’t be
surprising to see him swing into action.

It potentially gives the
expression “stay tuned” an entirely different meaning

Monday, March 18, 2019

Pressure cooker

In the midst of the glee and euphoria surrounding the trade
that set the National Football League aflame a few days comes a caveat with
regard to the immediate future of the Browns.

There is no question General Manager John Dorsey has cobbled
together a roster in just 15 months that qualifies as one of the best in the
NFL. The talent quotient is right there with Kansas City, New England and the
Los Angels Rams.

The big question is whether the coaching staff under rookie
head coach Freddie Kitchens is seasoned enough to handle this vast array of
talent, the likes of which hasn’t graced the Cleveland football landscape in a
very long time.

Dorsey believes so. “From a planning standpoint, you want to
surround a first-year head coach with quality coaches at all levels,” he told
the Cleveland media last week. “I think we’ve done that. Surround him with a
strong coaching staff.”

Kitchens’ star has risen so rapidly, so majestically, the
fact he has never been the lead whistle of a football team on any level has been
shunted to the background in light of all the personnel moves.

There is no question whatsoever the new boss of the locker
room has the chops to handle an offense. That was more than evident in the
second half of last season when he transformed the Cleveland offense into one
of the league’s most dangerous.

But there is more, a lot more, to being a head coach than
shepherding just one side of the football. It is an entirely different world
because he now has the ears of the entire
team. He is the man who sets the tone for everything going forward.

Initial observations from listening to Kitchens indicate he
will be a players’ coach. Instead of separating himself from the players in a somewhat
aloof manner, he genuinely cares about them on a personal basis.

The NFL head coaching landscape is dotted with coaches who
prefer their relationships with the players to be strictly on a coach-player
plane, a business basis. Kitchens is too down home to bend in that direction.

I get the impression he believes his success will be
determined on how close he gets to the players, planting seeds in an effort to
get them to play that much harder for him because they really want to.

As a neophyte to the head coaching ranks, he has to straddle
a fine line as he tries to please his many bosses in the Ivory Tower and, at
the same time, maintain a close relationship with his team.

He has to identify and then put out fires that are bound to
occasionally erupt in the locker room. With strong and somewhat unpredictable personalities
like Baker Mayfield, Jarvis Landry and Odell Beckham Jr. in that room, anything
is possible.

That’s not to say trouble will always be lurking. But part
of Kitchens’ job entails sniffing out the fire before it becomes a blaze and snuffing
it out. Establishing harmony in a room of 53 players is quintessential to the performance
of the end product.

Kitchens obviously has the ringing endorsement of his
general manager. “This head coach is very direct, very honest,” Dorsey said.
“He’s going to tell it like it is. . . . He will hold players accountable.
He’ll let players express themselves as he should do.”

That includes Beckman, whose unpredictability in New York
greased the slide that saw him dealt to the Browns. “(Kitchens) will tell Odell
like it is,” the GM said. “. . . We really like Odell. He’s passionate, He’s competitive.
He wants to be great. You can’t have enough of those guys. . . . We’re thrilled
to have him.”

There is also no question Mayfield loves his new head coach.
He has made that clear since the appointment in January. It will be interesting,
maybe even fascinating, to see how much of an influence he can be on the rest
of the offense in that regard.

At the tail end of last season, members of the offensive
line practically rhapsodized in their praise of the rookie quarterback. The
trickle down effect was astounding. That bears watching in 2019.

This is a football team that is loaded with talent,
especially on offense. You can bet Dorsey, along with owners Dee and Jimmy
Haslam III, and the fans expect positive results almost immediately.

All this is new to Kitchens, who will matriculate through
his rookie season as a head coach under as much, maybe even more, pressure to
succeed than any Browns head coach since, well, since Bill Belichick
took over back in 1991. How he handles it will be a determining factor on how
successful the 2019 Browns are.

Friday, March 15, 2019

Dealing Duke a mistake

Now that the Browns know they won’t have the services of running
back Kareem Hunt until the second half of the 2019 season, it’s time for Browns
General Manager John Dorsey to stop shopping Duke Johnson Jr.

There is no logical reason to continue to solicit any kind
of activity that would land the versatile running back/wide receiver on the
roster of another National Football League team.

Besides, there is no guarantee Hunt, who received an
eight-game suspension by the NFL Friday and will be a restricted free agent at
the end of this season, will return to the Browns for the 2020 season.

The Browns rescued the Willoughby native after the Kansas
City Chiefs cut him late last season following violations of the league’s
personal conduct policy. He obviously is grateful, the Browns signed him, but
in the business world, that goes just so far.

Unless Dorsey, who drafted Hunt as the Chiefs’ general
manager, can extract a promise from Hunt that he will sign a long-term contract
with Cleveland after this season, it makes no sense to deal Johnson now. That’s
not going to happen.

It’s difficult to understand why Dorsey is thinking of dealing
Johnson when he says, “Duke Johnson is a really good player. He’s a very valuable
asset on this team.” And “you can never have enough talent on a team.”

Now that Odell Beckham Jr. is aboard, that virtually eliminates
Johnson from being part of the pass offense. All of which pigeonholes him at
running back and he is a decided No. 3 behind Nick Chubb and Hunt, once he
returns from suspension.

Now Dorsey is clearly gambling – so what else is new? – that Hunt will see the
light and remain with the team that tossed him a lifeline. Then again, there is a chance he just might say adios next
year when a team looking for a stud running back with the résumé he owns and
offers him more money than the Browns are willing to match.

Also take into consideration Hunt, once he returns, will share
reps with Chubb, a situation he might not like considering he was the man in Kansas
City and rarely missed plays.

That’s part of the conundrum. There are too many possibilities
of losing Hunt next year for Dorsey with regard to dealing Johnson. Unless, of
course, he genuinely does not believe Johnson is a fit with this team.

Unfortunately, the last two Browns coaching staffs have not
maximized his talents. So if Dorsey insists on looking for a trade partner, a
team like the New England Patriots and offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels would
be a perfect fit.

About the best the Cleveland GM can hope for in return is a
fifth-round draft pick or a marginal player best suited for special teams.

Wednesday, March 13, 2019

The future has arrived

At the recent National Football League Scouting Combine in
Indianapolis, the media asked Browns General Manager John Dorsey about his team
and what the future looked like.

The question, prompted by the club’s surprisingly good
showing last season, drew the following answer: “I don’t think we’re a team yet
to go for it.We have a young,
talented team. Let’s build a foundation here. Let’s build a team of substance,
OK?”

Now maybe Dorsey was being overly modest about what the
Browns accomplished in his first full season as GM. Then again, maybe he knew
what the immediate future held and was merely pretending.

After stunning the NFL – and the entire sports world, for
that matter – by trading for New York Giants superstar wide receiver Odell
Beckham Jr, Tuesday, it turned out the audacious Dorsey clearly was playing his
cards close to the vest.

When the blockbuster news arrived shortly before 8 o’clock
Tuesday night that the Browns had shipped their first-round pick and the lower
of two third-round choices in next month’s college draft and safety Jabrill Peppers
to the Giants for the peerless Beckham, it shook the NFL Universe to its core.

The future is clearly bright now in Berea and Dorsey, even
more clearly, is as all in as a poker player sitting with a straight flush and
equally straight face.

His aim is higher, a whole lot higher, than the AFC North
championship, which seemed like an achievement just a few short months ago. The
championship thoughts now coursing through his mind are much closer to the Super
Bowl.

All of which makes the almost-miraculous transformation of this
franchise in the last 15 months, or since Dorsey took charge, as remarkable as
any in recent NFL memory.

This franchise was setting numerous records for futility as
recently as a couple of years ago. They became only the second team in league
history to lose all 16 games in one season (2017) and won only once in 32 games
in consecutive campaigns.

The Cleveland Browns were an embarrassment to the league, wandering
aimlessly. Finishing in the basement was an annual event. Fans jumped off the
bandwagon in droves.

Then along came Dorsey, who keeps topping himself, with a
simple objective. Change the culture. He methodically dismantled half the roster
he inherited and went to work shaping the immediate future in his image.

And now comes the piece
de résistance. Landing one of the genuine superstars of the NFL at a time
when doing so was merely a pipe dream, a thought bubble that kept exploding
because it was not doable.

After signing him to a new five-year, $98.5 million contract
last summer the Giants maintained they would not trade Beckham, but would
certainly listen to offers. Giants GM Dave Gettleman repeatedly told the media,
as recently as the Scouting Combine, “We didn’t sign Odell to trade him, OK?”

As much as Browns Nation dreamed of such a deal, they
realistically couldn’t help but think it had no chance of happening.

Until it did. And it instantaneously labels the Browns
relevant in a spectacular way.

Helping Dorsey pry Beckham loose might have been a story
floating around New York that Beckham was not a favorite of Giants coach Pat
Shurmur, who would not be unhappy to see him leave. Gettleman ostensibly had
two choices: Trade Beckman or fire his coach.

Dorsey and Gettleman, who successfully negotiated the Kevin
Zeitler-Olivier Vernon trade just a few days ago, probably expanded their
discussions to Beckham before agreeing on the second swap.

To make matters a little easier logistically, the clubs have
agreed to combine the two deals, making it Zeitler, Peppers, a one and a three
for Beckham and Vernon. That’s outright thievery in broad daylight either way.

I was of the belief it would cost at least a pair of ones, a
two and a higher profile player than Peppers, who has not lived up to
expectations, although he did appear to put together a much stronger second
half last season after being totally misused as a rookie.

The King’s ransom thought to be the key to dislodging
Beckham from the Giants’ roster turned out to be a pawn’s ransom by comparison
as Christmas and New Year’s arrived in Cleveland 10 months early.

The gravitas Beckham brings to Cleveland, added to that of
Baker Mayfield, now places the Browns in the upper echelon of relevance from a
media standpoint. Networks will scramble to land as many nationally televised Browns
games as they can.

With the likes of Beckham, his college buddy Jarvis Landry, Mayfield,
Nick Chubb, the distinct possibility of Kareem Hunt, emerging tight end David
Njoku and a defense that ultimately could be the most improved in the league this
season, Browns fans should have no problem getting used to the national
spotlight.

The acrobatic and highly entertaining Beckham, who has
averaged 93 yards a game and scored 44 touchdowns in five seasons, legitimizes
a Cleveland offense that flirted with being one of the most dangerous in the
league in the second half of last season. Some national media observers are
calling the Browns “scary good.”

Keeping the mercurial Beckham happy in his new environment
should not be a problem, Besides rejoining his former Louisiana State teammate
Landry, he also will be coached by Adam Henry, their position coach at LSU.

The domino effect on offense should be felt almost
immediately and serve as a supreme challenge to the creative minds of new head
coach Freddie Kitchens and offensive coordinator Todd Monken.

The mind boggles at what these guys can do with the talents
of Mayfield, Beckham, Landry, Antonio Callaway, Njoku, Chubb, Hunt, etc. There
is so much talent on that side of the football now, the only problem might be
keeping everyone engaged and happy.

The deals have also had an immediate impact on betting odds
for this season. The team that annually scraped the bottom of the NFL for
nearly two decades went from 25-1 to 14-1 to win the next Super Bowl and from
12-1 to 7-1, behind only New England and Kansas City, to win the AFC
championship.

Social media exploded with the news as prominent athletes
around the sports world chimed in. Former Cavaliers great LeBron James, a
Dallas Cowboys fan, tweeted: “OH!!!! S*#% just got REAL!!” Might he be thinking
of switching allegiances?

The seismic aftershocks of this deal will be felt for quite
a while, dominating the headlines before simmering down and then firing up
again as teams prepare for the upcoming season with OTAs, minicamps and then
summer camps.

The Browns and their fans had better get used go the
national attention this team is certain to attract. The whole new culture in Berea
also will take some getting used to after all these years of futility and
frustration and being ignored. It’s pretty safe to say now the Factory of Sadness that sits
by the lakefront will take on a brand new name.

At the same time, I cannot adequately describe how utterly strange
it seems to be typing Super Bowl and Cleveland Browns in the same sentence.
It’s a strange and somewhat surreal feeling.

And that rapidly shrinking bandwagon is loading up again and
should reach capacity, if there is such a thing considering the international reach of Browns Nation, well before the start of the
2019 season as visions of a return to the glory days of this once-proud
franchise dance around.

Fans who have stuck around and been patient through the last
two decades despite all the losing will now be rewarded for their patience and
loyalty with the kind of football team they expected when the NFL allowed it to
return in 1999 after an undeserved three-year absence.

Bottom line: OBJ in Cleveland is one of the most joyous OMG
moments in not just Cleveland Browns history, but Cleveland sports history,
ranking right up there with the LeBron James era. Two transcendent,
generational athletes performing for the great sports fans of Cleveland.

Tuesday, March 12, 2019

Defensive line sports new look

John Dorsey, the mad scientist of Berea, emerged from his
underground laboratory Tuesday with yet another piece of the puzzle along the
Browns’ defensive line.

In agreeing with defensive tackle Sheldon Richardson on a
three-year, $39 million contract, which will be announced officially Wednesday,
Dorsey all but assured the 2019 revamped defensive line will look nothing like
the one that performed in 2018, especially from a quality standpoint.

With newly-acquired Olivier Vernon partnering with Myles
Garrett on the edges and Richardson lining up next to Larry Ogunjobi, journeys
deep into to the offensive backfields of opponents should ostensibly become
much more frequent and productive.

The question, however, is what Sheldon Richardson have the
Browns signed? The one who played defensive end so well for four seasons with
the New York Jets? Or the one whose production fell off after being switched to
tackle the last two seasons in Seattle and Minnesota?

Does he still have the skills that earned him defensive
Rookie-of-the-Year honors in the National Football League? Or have they eroded
to the point where he has become an NFL vagabond, playing with his fourth team
in four years?

Dorsey is clearly gambling (shocking, I know) that
Richardson, same age as Vernon at 28, sill has plenty left and playing with a
team clearly on the rise will serve as motivation. Theoretically, both men are
in the prime of their careers. Playing with Garrett certainly won’t hurt.

The big problem on defense last season was the inability –
with Garrett the lone exception – to make life uncomfortable for opposing
quarterbacks. Add the inability to stop the run game and fixing the defensive
trench all added up and became priority No. 1.

There is no reason to believe Dorsey will stop there. The
college draft is loaded this season with quality defensive linemen and it would
not surprise to see the Cleveland general manager attempt to strengthen the
depth there.

Enough skill players taken early in the draft should push a
high quality defensive lineman or two down to the Browns’ slot at No. 17.
Unless, of course, Dorsey feels the need to move up and grab someone he has
identified as a must-get.

The two latest moves, in addition to the continuing growth
of second-year hybrid linebacker Genard Avery, relegate second-year
disappointment Trevon Coley to a situational role inside and seriously jeopardize
Emmanuel Ogbah’s stay in Cleveland.

It will also give new defensive coordinator Steve Wilks and
his staff a chance to unlock the mystery of why Chad Thomas, a third-round draft
pick last year, all but disappeared during the season and contributed less than
zero.

The 67th overall selection in the lottery should
not become a cipher in the grand scheme of things with a professional football
team. His team biography says he is “a working music producer when not playing
football and produced tracks for (several) recording artists.” The Browns need
him to produce . . . on a football field.

***

One less concern on offense: Breshad Perriman somewhat
surprisingly signed a one-year, $4 million contract Tuesday, 24 hours before
his contract would have expired.

The former first-round draft choice by Baltimore, whose
career took off with the Browns last season after three disappointing seasons
with the Ravens, was rumored to be using last season’s success as a reason to
test free agency.

It is being labeled a prove-it signing, as in prove last
season – the speedy wide receiver caught 16 passes for 340 yards and a pair of
touchdowns in 10 games – was no fluke and further success this season would act
as a bridge to a much more lucrative future contract.

It is widely believed Perriman had become one of quarterback
Baker Mayfield’s favorite receivers, averaging 21.3 yards a reception, but he
was targeted just 25 times in his 10 games.

The Perriman signing might also influence Rashard Higgins,
more of a possession receiver whose production increased markedly in his third
year last season, to re-up with the club.

There is no question the contributions of Perriman and
Higgins were significant as the Browns displayed one of the NFL’s most
dangerous offenses in the second half of last season.

Together with veteran Jarvis Landry and rookie Antonio
Callaway, what once was a club weakness at wide receiver has arguably become a strength.
And if Dorsey somehow manages to land free agent Tyrell Williams, Mayfield
becomes that much more dangerous.

Saturday, March 9, 2019

Catching up . . . again

Let’s start with the fresh stuff and work back to recent
events that have aged the last few weeks.

THE TRADE

John Dorsey arrived in Cleveland about 16 months ago with
the reputation of getting things done in a hurry.

It took him less than one season to overhaul the roster of
the National Football League’s most moribund franchise and emerge with what can
arguably be called the most surprising record in the league last season.

The fact that he labeled it unsatisfactory – it all depends
on your perspective – was a clear signal it will not be any different this
season.

Sending guard Kevin Zeitler, the club’s best offensive
lineman the last two seasons and one of the best in the NFL overall, to the New
York Giants for defensive end Olivier Vernon a few days ago proves it.

Shipping a high quality offensive lineman in his prime (he’s
only 29) takes plenty of nerve and a gambling gene that constantly needs to be
scratched. Never mind that Vernon is high quality, too, and fills a need.

What Dorsey has done in the process is weaken a unit that
struggled with the ground game last season. It seems as though that was the
only way he could justify taking Austin Corbett at the top of round two in last
season’s college draft.

Corbett, who played just about every minute of the 2018
exhibition season and sat out just about all of the regular season, is not
Zeitler. At least not yet. It is unfair to draw that comparison, and yet here
we are.

With problems at left tackle – Greg Robinson struggled in
the run game and excelled at protecting Baker Mayfield when he wasn’t holding
the opponent – and now right guard, Dorsey is rolling the dice on a unit vital
to the success on that side of the ball.

It is entirely possible the GM will go shopping in this
year’s college lottery to help that unit in an effort to sustain the success it
enjoyed in the second half of last season. Because right now, the quality
quotient is well below last season’s with Zeitler’s absence.

Vernon, on the other hand, definitely fills a need and checks
off one of areas that plagued the club last season – the pass rush. When one
man (Myles Garrett) has 13½ of the team’s 37 sacks, you’ve got a problem.

Vernon, who labored last season playing in a 3-4 scheme as
an outside linebacker with the Giants, returns to end in the 4-3 look of new
defensive coordinator Steve Wilks and should finally take some of the pressure
off Garrett.

Emmanuel Ogbah certainly hasn’t the last two seasons and
most likely will see more time inside if he makes the final cut or survives
long enough to make it to summer camp.

This could very well turn out to be one of those unusual
trades that helps both teams. Zeitler will fit in nicely with the Giants, whose
offensive line has struggled the last couple of seasons. Vernon will help the sack
total rise. It all depends on Corbett.

THE DUKE

Rampant speculation that Duke Johnson Jr. might not be a
member of the Browns this year is troubling. Rumors that refuse to go away
suggest numerous NFL clubs would love to have the running back on their roster.

Why in the world would Dorsey risk losing one of the best
playmakers on the club by trading him? He says he isn’t trying to do that, but
would not refuse to take calls from other clubs with that in mind. In other
words, Johnson is not untouchable.

Dorsey dances gingerly down that two-way street with a
player who would look great on a team that knows how to best utilize this
talents. Something the Browns have had difficulty with.

Is Johnson a running back? Or is he a receiver? He’s both.
He’s the kind of player you want to own the football because he makes good
things happen with his feet. Get him the ball and watch him make plays.

If new head coach Freddie Kitchens is such an offensive
genius, it shouldn’t be that difficult for him to scheme plays that best suit
Johnson’s talents. That talent has been wasted far too long in Cleveland.

JAMIE COLLINS

Can’t blame Dorsey for cutting Collins, whose inconsistent
play last season contributed to the disappointing defensive showing last
season. It wasn’t just him, to be sure, but the large contract that kept him in
Cleveland strangled his chances of remaining.

Sashi Brown vastly overpaid Collins after he played very
well for a half season after joining the team in a trade midway through the
2016 season. There was no way he was going to renegotiate the four-year, $50
million contract.

Keeping him did not justify the money he was set to make
considering how far his game had fallen off. “There were some inconsistencies,”
Dorsey said following Collins’ release. “He may have been nicked. All I know is
he is a very talented football player. You can’t have enough of those guys on
your team.”

A classic case of damning with faint praise.

WHAT LIES AHEAD

Free agency lurks around the corner with the first day of
the 2019 league year set to begin at 4 p.m. on Wednesday shortly after all 2018
player contracts expire. Contract negotiations with free agents are permitted
on Monday with the trading period beginning Wednesday at 4.

The annual college draft will be conducted April 25-27 in
Nashville. The Browns, barring unforeseen maneuvering by Dorsey, are scheduled
to select 17th in the opening round with needs at defensive tackle,
offensive line, linebacker (inside and outside), wide receiver and the secondary
(in that order).